How Does This Work Again?

by Shaun Groves
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Radio stations receive a stack of singles each week.  The independent artists are filed in the trash can.  The major labels and artists with big names get heard first along with, possibly, any artist from a label who’s given the program director a golf trip or baseball tickets in the recent past (actual examples).  But that still leaves a lot of songs to sift through for a hit.  So program directors of large stations and networks then, usually, hire a company to test this whittled down batch of songs, then play the best testing songs.

The test group is usually, for AC stations, Christian females 25-44 who listen primarily to Christian radio (BONUS: These folks are called P1’s.  P2’s are those who listen but not primarily to CCM radio).

Well, we at Rocketown Records figure if this system works so well for radio types why don’t we use it to choose my next single and save our pals in radio world a little money and time. And I’m just tired of hearing “Your song doesn’t test well for us.” We’ll see about that.  We’ve now completed testing on a large group of P1 females nation-wide in hopes of their collective “wisdom” guiding us to the best choice for my next single – a song that we know in advance will test well for radio stations.

But, and this might surprise you all, music, as it turns out, is subjective.  Huh.  Who knew?  So it’s apparently hard for a group of people to reach a consensus about whether a song is good or bad.  Go figure.  Instead we got what stations get from testing: a big pile of expensive conflicting data.  One man’s, I mean woman’s, upbeat and positive is another woman’s play-this-and-I’ll-kill-myself apparently.  Enjoy SOME of the slew of real opinions from test subjects asked “WHAT DO YOU LIKE OR DISLIKE ABOUT THE SONG ‘AMEN’?”

Awesome song! Love to hear it on the radio often! I liked the music, the beat, the words!

Classic rock is it? That is at least the feel of this song. Great arrangement and production.

Don’t care for hard rock music

I like the heavier rock sound

Does not sound so much inspired as it sounds made up.

i like it because it seems honest & genuine

Don’t like his voice

i like his voice

I can relate to the song, asking God for mercy. This is a good song.

hard to relate to this kind of music- i’m sure it helps some people. the music is like secular music i hear when flipping the channels and if that is what it is supposed to be like then it fits.

I like it because you know it’s a christian song…Some you never know it is until you hear who the artist is.

I like the words, but the music and how it is sung seems dark instead of christ-like.

I like the words. They seem to be very biblical.

too slow

it’s upbeat

its uplifting

Not very uplifting

It sounds outdated

It’s a new kind of sound – I really like it!

just didnt have a good beat

Love the beat

Matthew West? I have the new CD but haven’t listened to it yet.

not charismatic enough

Sounds like every Christian pop song

Breaks the mold a bit of CCM.

too slow starting, didn’t grab me

This song captured me within the first 10 seconds! Great sound, great vocals!! Would love to know who this is?

Well, there are the results.  Testing obviously works like a charm.  The verdict is obvious isn’t it?  Well, not until we hire a pricey radio consultant to interpret all this for us.  Hey, isn’t it consultants who told program directors to test singles in the first place?  Wait a minute…

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